Henri IV à la reconquête du royaume de France : les légendes en faveur du premier roi Bourbon, en musique

• Main Author: Cindy Pédelaborde
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: UMR 5136- France, Amériques, Espagne – Sociétés, Pouvoirs, Acteurs (FRAMESPA) 2012-12-01
• Series: Les Cahiers de Framespa
• Subjects: court ballets; Henri IV; political propaganda; religious wars; royalist songs
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/framespa/1821

Somewhat sacrificed during the religious wars, the artistic and musical court life bloomed after peace returned. Nevertheless, the era of the civil wars was not entirely devoid of music. Songs and court ballets, alternately vehicles of the fervor among Catholics and Protestants, or actual media of the period, developed. Music also served to strengthen the monarchic power, spreading the royalist images which depicted Henri IV as Mars or Hercules, as the glorious pacifying king (bringing down the evil League personified in the figure of Circe, the ogress Medea or Alcina), as the French Perseus liberating his sacrificed people from the yoke of Spain, or adorn him with Appolo's attributes –holding the lyre and surrounded by a sun halo.